"Capturing the world, one click at a time."
Gordon Lewis' reflections on amateur photography and the gear it takes to do it.

March 02, 2013

Get on the Ball

Since my last post was on travel tripods, I thought I might
as well follow-up with a short post on ballheads. This is not for those of you who
already know all this; it’s for those who wonder why anyone would want to buy a
separate tripod head at all. Why not just buy a tripod-head combo and be done
with it?

There’s one basic reason: choice. You might not want
whatever head the manufacturer deems best. It might be too big, too small, too
flimsy, or too limiting for your needs. If you buy a tripod with a removeable
head you can attach the exact head you want and change later if you need
something different. There's a lot to be said for adaptability.

The reason I prefer a ballhead for travel is that it’s a lot
more compact than the comparable pan-tilt head. A pan-tilt has handles that
extend outward and compromize portability. The controls on a ballhead are
compact knobs or levers that are also less likely to snag on branches, brush,
and other people.

Although you can get by with just one control—a locking
screw or lever for the ball—this is less than optimal because the only way to
pan is by unlocking the ball. If you then let go of your camera it will drop
downward and perhaps even strike the tripod. You may also find that when you
lock down the head the added tension on the ball will make your framing will
shift a bit. Some heads compensate for this by adding a heavy-duty spring that
places the ball under constant tension. In practice, the spring will be too
heavy for some camera/lens combinations and too light for others.

That’s why it’s better to use a ballhead with an adjustable
friction control. Better yet, make sure it has a separate pan base too; that
way you can pan the camera without having to unlock the ball itself.

The final factor to consider is how to attach it to your camera.
Some heads have a standard tripod screw, others use quick-mount plates that
attach to your cameras and lenses. The benefit to a standard tripod head is
that you can use it with practically any camera or lens that has a tripod
socket. The drawback is that the heavier your lens, the more it acts as a lever
that pulls your camera downward, thereby loosening it from the tripod. This can
happen with some quick-mount plates as well. The better plates have a “lip”
that fits along the base of your camera or lens to prevent it from twisting.

For speed and convenience you’ll need a separate plate for
each item you want to attach, which can get pricey. Make sure that if you do opt for a quick-mount
head it uses standard Arca-Swiss style plates, otherwise you’ll be limited to a
smaller, less flexible selection of proprietary plates.

The final factor to consider is size. The more weight you
need the head to support, the bigger the ball should be. You don’t want to try
to support a Canon 1DX with 400mm f/.28 telephoto lens on a ball the size of a
marble. By the same token, a 2-inch diameter ball is overkill for an Olympus
OM-D with a 20mm pancake lens.

That’s about it, folks. The rest becomes a matter of what
design you feel most comfortable with. Choose a head with controls where you
want and expect them to be and that feels built to last decades. Make the right
choice and you’ll be enjoying your ballhead—and tripod—long after your current
camera is a distant memory.

If you care about precise framing and want to save time, a separate pan base above the ball is invaluable. With that, you don't have to fiddle with the length of the legs to level the base anymore: once the camera is level, you can pan it freely without having to worry that the verticals will tilt. (This is obvious when shooting multi-frame panoramas, but just in terms of working faster, it is worth it.)

I've been using the Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 dp (Double Pan) for years and I could not go back to a head with a single pan... There are not many options for such a feature, though (I believe Really Right Stuff have one). Another way to achieve a similar result is with certain ball heads (Acratech comes to mind) that can be mounted upside down (with the clamp installed at the other end) so that the pan base becomes above the ball.

Come to think of it, I don't understand why the default position for the pan axis is not always above the ball...

The head pictured in this post is the Acratech Ultimate Ballhead (www.acratech.net). It has all the features I describe. Equally important, at least to me, is that it weighs less than one pound. You may like it too.

Keep in mind, however, that because of the 45-degree angle at which the head is supported, you have to shift the base 90-degrees if you want to shift the camera to a vertical orientation or vice-versa. Some ballheads have dual slots that eliminate this problem. This is not an issue you use an L-shaped camera plate, in which case you simply re-mount the camera, not move the head. The same applies to lens collars with a tripod mount: you loosen the collar, rotate the camera, and re-tighten. In either case, your setup is more stable when the weight of the camera and lens are entered over the vertical axis of the tripod rather than leaning to one side or the other.

I have a good travel tripod, although it certainly wasn't a bargain, but only a barely adequate ballhead. Thanks for detailing what I should look for in a better head.
The search will, however, have to wait until we return from our now annual five week cycling trip to Europe where I will be using only my "compromise" camera (a Canon G10) and a Gorillapod. Of course there will be lots of memory shots which are, in the end, the most important to me, but I would love to get one shot that nears the quality of the bench shot in your recent post about compromise—a post I really enjoyed.